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Back in 2020, two new guidelines were introduced to support schools in teaching Relationships and Sexuality Education. The guidelines were introduced by the then Associate Education Minister and New Zealand First MP, Tracey Martin, after reports from the Education Review Office showed inconsistencies in how schools taught this subject - alongside significant gaps. The new guidelines brought greater emphasis to sexuality and gender diversity, Māori and Pacific views of sexuality, the use of digital technologies, and information about relationships and sexuality education for disabled learners.

However, the current government scrapped these guidelines as part of a coalition agreement with New Zealand First, who campaigned on removing the guidelines, which they called ‘woke gender ideology.’

The new proposed guidelines for relationships and sex education are significantly different to those introduced back in 2020.

For this week’s Get Action, Producer Theo spoke to Leonie Morris from Te Wāhi Wāhine o Tāmaki Makaurau - the Auckland Women’s centre - on their petition to bring back Te Tiriti-based, inclusive relationships and Sexuality education in schools.

If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here.

Disabilities come in myriad forms, but it is often how institutions and society engage with them that shapes the limitations they pose.

For this week's Get Action, I spoke to JT from Touch Compass on their petition ‘Say YES to “Access” #YesToAccessNZ | Words Shape World’, aiming to encourage a rethink of the way we conceptualise disability as a society by changing how we talk about it.

If you would like to learn more about this petition or sign your name to it, you can find its Action Station page here.

Over the weekend, the largest pro-Palestinian protest in Aotearoa’s history was held in Tāmaki Makaurau, drawing a crowd of well over 25,000 people.

One of the mains calls of protestors and the organisers was for the government to place sanctions on Israel for actions they’ve committed during their war on Gaza, which the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory has officially referred to as genocidal and have led to the deaths of almost 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023.

For this week’s Get Action! Wednesday Wire Host Oto spoke with Nadine Mortaja, one of the organisers behind Saturday’s March for Humanity, about a petition of hers calling for the New Zealand Government to place sanctions on Israel.

If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here:

The Israeli founded and based company SodaStream is the most popular sparkling water maker in New Zealand, supplying sparkling water machines to over 400,000 households in Aotearoa, with around 30% of families using one to make beverages at home.

The company has also had involvement in the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, previously having a factory in the Ma'ale Adumim settlement in the internationally recognised Palestinian west bank.

For this week’s Get Action! Oto spoke with Brandon Johnstone, a BDS coordinator at Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa about a petition calling on retailers and stockists to swap out SodaStream for more ethical alternatives.

If you'd like to sign this petition, you can find it here: